#ethan hunt

Patron Saint of Lost Causes

I think I’ve gotten too used to indestructible action heroes who can’t lose a fight or get more than a scratch, so I was pleasantly surprised to see Ethan Hunt fumble around and get his ass kicked repeatedly. He comes off as a slightly more realistic male power fantasy because he can do some insane shit but then slightly miscalculate a jump and bash his head into a wall, knocking himself out only to wake up later tied to torture chair in the villains lair.

He is the clear leader of his team but he repeatedly ends up in situations that he only escape because someone else helps him. Without his team or characters with gray morality he would have been dead many times over. I wasn’t even surprised when he drowned and legit died for a few minutes, only saved by Ilsa, because that’s what he does. He completes the mission (or a step of it) and then fucking dies.

An having Benji as his right hand man makes their dynamic so much more entertaining because Ethan will do something amazing, get his ass kicked, leaving Benji who is incredibly anxious to try and help him which buys Ethan enough time to recover and save them both, or Benji gets overpowered and both of them have to be saved by another agent.

I can’t get over the scene where Ethan has recently been resuscitated and Benji just woke up from being unconscious and they both have to stumble around in a weakened and dazed state to get out. That’s the kind of action heroes I want to see and root for!

And Ethan is fallible and emotional enough to burn everything down, including himself, just to keep Benji safe. He was ready to destroy the relationship between USA and Britain by kidnapping the prime minister because Benji was being held captive.

When I first saw this behind the scenes photo I assumed it was from a spicy scene between Ethan and Ilsa that Simon Pegg just crashed, but no, it’s from a drowning scene and the actors got into this pose because they know what the dynamic between the characters is. (Edit: I was shown the clip where Simon Pegg just straight up says he played Benji as having a crush on Ethan and what that means for Benji’s relationship with other characters and given how Ethan behaves around Benji I can only assume Tom Cruise made the choice to play it as if Ethan knows but can’t return those feelings, yet loves Benji all the same)

I have to admit the movies are so fast paced and have so many scenes in different locations that they blend together for me, but I had fun marathoning them nonetheless. We need more modern action heroes like Ethan Hunt who are fallible and legit team players.